thailand blog

Saturday was a fun filled day! We (Me, Abby, Madison, Courtney, & Mckenzie) woke up at 7:30 to wait for our ride outside of our hotel to go ride elephants!! They picked us up & a few other groups then we headed to the jungle, about an hour away. The place we went to was called "panda tours" it makes no sense & it's kinda hilarious. Haha it was such a good place though. We were nervous about the elephants being treated badly & stuff like that but we didn't get that vibe at all. They were very informative & told us everything. The place was actually located in a village & the owners of the elephants ARE the villagers. They are working elephants for the villagers. We were basically taking care of the elephants for them & the price we paid (50 dollars) pays for the food for the elephants, our lunch, & obviously the experience. Oh & I guess for the trainers to get paid too. So it is very self sufficient. When we got there we first changed into these dirty denim clothes & hung out with the elephants & fed them. I think the point was to get us comfortable with them. They are the cutest animals to me. It's trunk alone almost seems like an animal itself. It's weird. There was a little baby elephant that was 3 years old that kissed our cheeks. It felt like a vacuum suction! 3 is very young for an elephant. Elephants can live up to 90 years old!!! Like humans! So cool. We took a bunch of pictures & then the trainers taught us some basic Thai commands to control the elephants. Like stop, go, left, right, etc. We also practiced getting on & off the elephants. You grab it's ear & a chunk of fat on its side then step on its foot & say "lift, higher" in Thai.. (I already forgot oops) & it lifts & you walk up its leg & hop on! Just like that! Then to get off, you slide off the front by its trunk. They are so strong & thick, I felt like a feather on top of it. Playing with them is not like playing with a cat (that's what the trainer was saying) you have to be firm with them & sometimes that makes people think you are hurting them. But they like it! You can tell the trainers have good friendly relationships with them. Just like someone would with their dog. I guess it's possible that they could just be putting on a show, but I like to think the best of them & again it seemed legit. Anyways, Abby, Madison, & I rode on an elephant together. They took us around the jungle, not too far because they actually walk really slow. Big steps, but slow. We went through a river & a lot of mud. At first it was difficult to stabilize yourself on the bare back but you got used to it. Half way through the trainer (when I say trainer just know I'm talking about the same one every time) he was the fun/funny one! So halfway through he jumped onto the back of our elephant & rode the rest of the way with us. He kinda came out of nowhere, I don't even know how he jumped on... Maybe off a big rock or tree... I don't remember. Haha then we rode to a watering hole at the end & slid off the elephant into the water. They gave us buckets & this weird tree bark stuff to scrub & wash the elephant with. After we finished scrubbing the elephant ate the bark we washed it with. I guess they will eat anything. Haha Then the trainer started throwing buckets of water on us & thus began our water fight! We got completely soaked, head to toe. That was one of my favorite parts. Just hanging out in the water with these huge elephants having a water fight in Thailand! Cool. I still can't believe I rode an elephant. It's been something I've wanted to do for so long & now I've done it!! Makes me realize how possible it is to do so many things on my bucket list. Check! Afterwards they fed us lunch, curry. & then we headed back to our hotel & relaxed a bit before going to the walking street (street market) oh wait. Before that we went to Dukes! I can't forget about Dukes! They serve the best American food in all the world. Seriously. & its run by all Asians. Their menu is huge they have everything! Madison & I split a calzone. Bomb. The only problem with the place is that their wifi never works. Haha THEN we went to the walking street. I like this market best because they have more hand crafted  things, it was just so crowded! We were there for a while then some of the girls wanted to go back to the hotel because they were tired. It was only 8 & I still wanted to go to Muay Thai boxing. I've realized since being here that if there are certain things I wanna do sometimes I just have to make it happen. I thought everyone would be the same way because we are in Thailand! But I guess not. Plus a lot of the girls have been here longer so they have already experienced things that some of us haven't yet. Anyways long story short only Madison & I ended up going. We got a tuk tuk to a bar & realized once we got there that it wasn't the training match (free) one we thought. So we were trying to decide what to do. We were gonna go back to the hotel cause we didn't want to pay, plus it was a sketch environment.. but then we got the price lowered from 400 baht to 200 baht each. Half off. Score! A lady took us back & we got front row cushioned seats. I don't even know how... I was confused, we paid half price & got "special treatment" cool. It was just a small place at a bar so it's not like it was really that much different than the back row, but it was still just funny. The match was sweet! I've never seen anything like it so close in person. I don't know how legit & good they really were but the experience was still awesome! Madison met a Russian man that was sitting next to us (she served in russia) & they were talking the whole time. I think it was fun for her to speak Russian & he couldn't believe she was an American, speaking Russian in Thailand he thought she was like a princess! He was floored when he found out she was married. Too young he said. Ha She shared the gospel with him a bit cause he asked how she knew Russian & then she gave him LDS.org. So cool. We were only going to stay for a bit but we ended up staying till midnight! We got out of there way fast after though & got a tuk tuk to our hotel. Met another cool dude in the tuk tuk. That's one thing I love about Chiang Mai. All the people we meet from different countries & places. It's fun. Such a great day.

 

This was on our way to Thai boxing in a tuk tuk. I like this video because my laugh is so real in it! It was the funniest thing how blue her face was to me. She looked like clay. Haha

They run her legs & dump ice water over her after each match.

 

RUB! Rub her legs. Ugh sorry.